Ellen Terry
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Image:Ellen Terry at age 16 by Julia Margaret Cameron.jpg Dame Ellen Alice Terry GBE (February 27, 1847 – July 21, 1928) was an English stage actress. She was born Alice Ellen, but she had reversed her names by the time of her first marriage.
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Early Life
Ellen Terry was born in Coventry, England in 1848, the daughter of actors Benjamin Terry and Sarah Ballard. Her brother Fred, sister Kate and several of her other siblings were also actors. She first appeared on stage as a child.
The Princess Theater
Image:Ellen Terry 3.jpg Ellen's first engagement was in 1856 at the Princess Theater, where she played the part of Mamilius in Shakespeare's "Winter's Tale" every night for one hundred and two nights. Her older sister Kate, who had begun acting in London in 1852, also played at the Princess. She continued acting at the Princess Theater until 1859, In her autobiography she described herself during those years as "a very strong, happy and healthy child."
A Travelling Player
For the next two years, Ellen and Kate began travelling as strolling players, accompanied by their parents and a musician. They travelled to a different town almost every day and slept in small inns. The family returned to London in 1861.
The Royalty Theater, Chute's Stock Company and the Haymarket
Between 1861-1862, Ellen was engaged by the Royalty Theater, managed by Madame Albina de Rhona.
In 1862, she joined her sister Kate in Bristol and began working with J.H. Chute's stock company where she played a wide variety of parts. When first cast for a burlesque role, Ellen pointed out that she was unable to sing or dance, was told that she had to do it anyway, and grew to enjoy burlesque as much as Shakespeare. In 1863, Chute opened the Theater Royal in Bath, where Ellen appeared at the opening as Titana in "A Midsummer's Night's Dream."
Marriage to Watts
Image:Ellen Terry at Lady Macbeth.jpg In London, during an engagement with the Haymarket Theater, Ellen and Kate had their portrait painted by the eminant artist, George Frederick Watts, and was impressed with the music, art and elegance of his lifestyle. She married him on February 20, 1864c 1864, shortly before her 16th birthday, when Watts was 46. Ellen gave up acting during her marriage to Watts and she felt more like a timid child bride than a hostess when eminent visitors came to call. They seperated after 10 months of marriage.
However, the birth of her son, Edward Gordon Craig, in 1872, was the result of a liaison with the progressive architect-designer Edward William Godwin, with whom she retreated to Hertfordshire, temporarily retiring from acting. The liaison cooled in 1874.
From 1874 she became the leading Shakespearean actress in London, and in partnership with Henry Irving became successful in England and the USA. In 1876 she married Charles Kelly. In 1903 she formed a theatre management business with her son, abandoning Irving. She struck up a friendship and a famous correspondence with George Bernard Shaw. In 1907 she married American actor James Carew. She became a Dame Grand Cross of the British Empire (GBE) in 1925.
Ellen Terry should not be confused with Charles Dickens' mistress Ellen Ternan, also an actress, who was a few years her senior. Her son, Edward Gordon Craig, became an important actor, designer, and director; her daughter Edith Craig became theatre director, producer, and early pioneer of the women's suffrage movement in England; her grandnephew, Sir John Gielgud, also became an actor. The singer, Helen Terry, is one of her descendants.
Her ashes rest at St Paul's, Covent Garden, London.
Bibliography
The Story of My Life (autobiography)
Ellen Terry: Player in Her Time by Nina Auerbach